Monitoring of consumer satisfaction and perceptions about goods and services provided by retailers is becoming increasingly important. The importance of such information arises from the competitive nature of retail delivery of high quality products and services. Consumer expectations generate demand for high quality in the products and services being delivered. Companies which provide high quality products and services to customers readily measure their success by increased profitability. Studies have reported that excellent customer service adds as much as twelve percent to profit margins. Repeated failures at customer service, or worse, consumer perceptions of failures to deliver quality customer service and goods can lead to mediocre economic performance and to possible failure of the provider as a business entity. Recognition of the importance of customer service has led a number of providers of goods and services to emphasize commitments to customer service in their advertising and promotional materials distributed to consumers. To consumer-oriented organizations, the loss of even one customer is significant. Researchers have found that it costs up to five times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to keep an existing one. A 5% increase in customer retention can lead to as much as a 30% improvement in earnings. Other studies have shown that only 4% of dissatisfied customers complain; the significant majority merely leave the store, and of these 91% of the dissatisfied do not return. In order to avoid losing a customer or a potential customer, providers recognize they must acquire and respond to feedback of consumers regarding satisfaction and perceptions of the products and services delivered by the provider.
The failure to obtain consumer feedback and to respond can be a problem having an unknown scale for a provider. For example, an unhappy customer is particularly more likely to complain about a "bad" experience than is a consumer likely to talk to friends and acquaintances about a "good" experience. It is estimated that a single bad experience with a provider can be communicated up to ten or more friends and acquaintances. Generally each of these individuals repeats the description of the bad experience to additional numbers of people. Each of these secondary contacts often repeats the description of the experience, as best recalled, to other individuals at a tertiary level from the direct experience. The spreading story of the one disgruntled consumer can easily reach a hundred or more potential consumers. Accordingly, it is recognized as better for providers that the customer complain to the management of the provider than to the customer's friends. This enables the provider to respond to the particular issue and to head off the spread of generally unfavorable comments regarding the provider.
There are a variety of mechanisms to meet the needs of providers to receive comments from consumers. One mechanism is to use independent market research firms to collect consumer comments as feedback of the performance of the provider. Many marketing research firms offer specialized programs in measurement of customer service. These research firms also consult, implement, and operate customer response systems on behalf client providers.
Obtaining customer comments for analysis, and reporting of same to the providers, takes many different forms. One of the most recognizable and widely used mechanisms is the use of comment cards, which are typically found at consumer service desks or at point-of-sales areas. Often these cards provide a simple check list of topics of interest to the retailer, such as customer service, product selection, and the like, with several descriptive adjectives or a ranking system using a range of numbers in order to rate the provider, its products, or its services, on a range from low to high, poor to excellent. For example, the ranking for each of the selected categories may be "poor", "less than satisfactory", "satisfactory", "excellent" which may also be reflective of a numerical range of 1 to 4 inclusive. The cards typically provide space for the consumer to write an individualized comment. The benefit of a comment card is capturing the near-spontaneous thoughts of the consumer, without reliance on face-to-face interaction between the consumer and a representative of the provider. Often, the comment cards are completed at the provider's location, so the reported information often is sent quickly back to management. Cards however have drawbacks which limit their use. The time and effort spent by the consumer to find response cards and to write comments often is a deterrent, which can lead to further dissatisfaction. The cards thus may be perceived by the consumer as such a sufficient obstacle that the comment is never delivered. Studies have shown that the rate of comment card usage can be as low as one one hundredth of one percent (of consumers entering the store) or lower. It is believed that consumers may also view the cards with skepticism because there is little assurance to the consumer that the information reported will be acted upon by the provider. Further, processing card information is laborious and it is cost intensive to collect, report and act on the information.
A computer kiosk having a touch-sensitive screen is a recent sophisticated alternate to comment cards. These devices benefit from being interactive and relatively easy to operate, but still require as much as 5-8 minutes of the consumer's time to register a comment. Typically, the consumer is directed through a menu of options depending on responses to previous questions. The screen attracts attention from passersby and not just those who feel strongly enough to volunteer opinions or comments. As with comment cards, computer kiosks have several drawbacks. Such kiosk stations are expensive and can cost $20,000 or more apiece, depending on level of sophistication. The questionnaire-style formats are relatively inflexible, in that questions are pre-determined and leave little opportunity or means for addressing or learning the specific concerns of the particular consumer. Questionnaires typically provide a list of subjects or topics and the consumer touches the screen at appropriate places in order to register general satisfaction or dissatisfaction with the performance of the provider for that subject or topic area. Further, some consumers may be reluctant to use new technology for registering comments or not want to commit the time required to operate the kiosk. Also, invalid data can be generated, in part due to the successful attention-attracting feature of the kiosk. Persons may enter responses just for the activity of using the system. Another important source of consumer comments is the customer service desk. The functions performed at the customer service desk primarily include merchandise return and exchange, packaging, and delivery of merchandise with the attendant responsibility of handling of customer complaints. A primary benefit of an active customer service desk is the personal interaction provided by the representative of the provider and the potential ability to address immediately the needs or perceptions of the consumer. However, customer service desks generally incur difficulty in operating as an effective recipient or processor of customer feedback. While the clerks may listen to the comments by consumers, and even take steps to respond to complaints, providers often lack formally documented procedures to record consumer concerns and suggestions and respond to such. Thus it may be difficult to identify provider-wide characteristics that need the attention and response of management. Also, due to locations of such service desks, and time constraints on both the consumer and clerks, customer service desks usually are ineffective in promoting casual feedback from consumers. Casual feedback often may be the most important information for providers because casual comments relate strongly to the near-simultaneous perception of the consumer which is being recorded in that environment. Also, a focus on comment feedback collection and processing is often overlooked due to the other critical functions the consumer service desk also provides.
Related to the collection and processing of consumer comments by a customer service desk are in-house customer help lines, personal interaction, and toll free consumer response telephone lines. An in-store help line connects the consumer with a representative of the provider at the point of purchase. Comments can be acted upon immediately. However, consumers often have to wait for attention once the call has been acknowledged by the representative, and the relative inaccessibility of help lines tends to hinder consumer response rates. Personal interaction either through the help line or direct in-store contact often has the benefit of resolving the customer concern at the time of occurrence. Personal interaction involves management or employees of the provider interacting with customers to ensure satisfaction. Often this is a function of the day-to-day activities of management and sales personnel of the provider. The benefits include the possibility of the immediate action to address the concerns of the consumer, the personal nature of the interaction and response, employee involvement in resolving consumer concerns, and the resulting potential to reinforce positive perceptions of the providers commitment to service and its responsiveness. Satisfactory personal interaction however, may be difficult to achieve. Responses satisfactory to the consumer depend upon the personal abilities and characteristics of the personnel handling the comments. Further, the representative may lack the authority to implement a solution to the consumers comment. Incorrect responses from improperly trained employees can be detrimental. Toll-free consumer lines are commonly perceived as a court of last resort which allow management to listen to local experiences. These toll-free calls also afford the consumer a non-confrontational venue to register complaints or comments. However, the toll-free numbers can deflect comments that should properly be handled by the local provider. Also, there is an inherent delay between the occurrence of which the consumer wishes to comment and the placing of the telephone call to register the comment, and the time necessary to register a comment is also a deterrent. These factors tend to reduce comments, except from the most determined.
Market research firms are capable of providing several comment-soliciting devices, including survey and questionnaires for analysis by consumers, focus groups, and mystery shoppers. The benefit of surveys are the ability to focus on precise aspects of the shopping experience. Surveys generally prompt consumers about shopping experiences. Surveys and questionnaire responses however are only as good as the particular questions involved. They often yield only pre-determined multiple choice answers, similar to the computer kiosk or consumer comment card. A significant drawback is that surveys rarely capture spontaneous customer thoughts regarding services and products. Rather they tend to record and report an overall impression by the customer of the different facts of services and products. Similarly, focus groups generally consist of a small number of selected individuals who provide feedback on various market activities of concern to the provider. Focus groups can provide in-depth analysis of particular problems identified by the provider for investigation as well as providing a range of opinions obtained from the participants. Focus groups however fail to obtain spontaneous feedback. Other limits of the validity of the results obtained from focus groups include the forced solicitation of feedback, moderator biases, expense, time, and the artificial environment. Mystery shoppers can be provided either directly by the store or by a consulting organization. Mystery shopping however does not rely on specific customer reactions after reaching a threshold level so it is not biased towards collecting negative feedback. Further, mystery shopping provides only one particular individual's point of view, which may be limited and is potentially biased. Further, the individual involved may be desensitized to certain aspects of the shopping experience that actual customers might react to. The use of mystery shoppers is a relatively expensive and inefficient form of obtaining indirect customer feedback.
It is thus seen that a need exists for improving the collection, analysis, and reporting of consumer perceptions for management of providers to use in evaluating delivery of goods and services to consumers. It is to the provision of such that the present invention is primarily directed.